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In September 2017, Wales won a World Cup qualifier 2-0 in Moldova and two of Iwan’s four sons travelled as supporters. Iwan recalls: “One of them called me after the game and said: ‘I’m in a club in Moldova and all the fans and the players are singing your song. I’m standing next to Aaron Ramsey who is singing Yma o Hyd like nothing you’ve seen before.’” Whenever Gunter hears the clip of Sheen exalting “you sons of Speed” he feels raw emotion. “That line touches us because Gary was a giant. His fingerprints are still on Welsh football.”

READ MORE: Warren Gatland reveals hurt after hearing players say he didn't care about them What are William and Kate's roles in rugby?Yet Hartley’s joy is curbed by disdain for the choice of Qatar as tournament host. “Do I feel conflicted? Yes. Do I wish it were somewhere else? Absolutely.” The FAW plans to call Wales by its Welsh name of Cymru in future internationals. It is another sign of Welsh pride and, watching Bala and Penybont in a fiercely competitive 1-1 draw, it’s hard to shake Yma o Hyd from my head. I remember the last story Iwan had told me the previous afternoon. The final words come from an exultant football commentary in Welsh, when qualification for Qatar was sealed, and the video ends with an image of Iwan’s head filling the screen.

Hartley echoes this view: “I’m hoping people choose Wales as their second team. We’re the underdogs, always have been. We’re not threatening. You could say that’s a political weakness or a cultural strength but we’re strong enough in our own skins to support Wales aloud and proud. We’re not aggressive or xenophobic. We’re just happy being Welsh.” Yma o Hyd is very different to a tired old reprise of Sweet Caroline or a sentimental chorus of “football’s coming home”. Instead, Iwan and the Red Wall singing in compelling union is the sound of a new Welsh confidence in its identity and language. Hartley suggests that only 20% of the population are fluent in Welsh – but around the national team the desire to speak the language, and sing in it, is consuming and inspiring. A League of Their Own does not usually feature poetic words but Sheen lit up the screen as he fused Iwan’s song with resurgent belief in Welsh football. “Yma o Hyd, Yma o Hyd,” Sheen whispered as he closed his eyes and spread his arms: Gunter played alongside Dave Edwards who was capped 43 times for Wales. The 36-year-old Edwards now leads Bala against Penybont in a Cymru Premier League game on a rainy Saturday afternoon. As always Bala walk out to Yma o Hyd.Chris Gunter, who plays for AFC Wimbledon in League Two, won the first of his 109 caps for Wales in 2007. Both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are involved in rugby through different royal roles, and have previously attended rugby matches together.

The Prince and Princess of Wales - William and Kate - will both have a vested interest in Wales v England at the Principality Stadium on Saturday. Over tea and scones at home, Iwan remembers some of the violent prisoners with whom he had shared a prison cell after defacing public signs written only in English in the 70s. Iwan, Hughes and Gunter will feel the same bittersweet emotion in Qatar. The Wales team, and the travelling Red Wall, will listen to Yma o Hyd and Sheen’s speech again and again as they draw courage for their tangled adventure. As Gunter says with a grin: “When my English friends hear [Iwan and Sheen] they say: ‘I wish I could be Welsh.” Hughes remembers another galáctico being swept away when Wales played Poland in their final home game before the World Cup . “That night I focused on Robert Lewandowski,” he says, “and after the [Welsh] anthem he just looked up at the crowd and said: ‘Wow…wow!’”

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Iwan wrote the song in 1983 when “it was a terrible time and the Thatcher regime hit Wales heavily. Coal mines and steelworks were closed and I was in the middle of a terrible divorce. Ymo o Hyd is about how we’re still here, despite everything and everyone and even ourselves. But it’s lovely that all these years later the song is driven by the Red Wall. It has become the focal point and Ian Gwyn Hughes has worked on this diligently for he believed that, to get the Welsh team giving their all, they needed a broader view of Welshness.” The big screen at Cardiff City Stadium displays the words to Yma o Hyd, along with the English translation, as Wales fans sing after the win over Ukraine. Dafydd Iwan singing Yma o Hyd along with the victorious Wales squad after the World Cup playoff final match between Wales and Ukraine. Hughes grimaces. “The FAW were trying to market the team in a new way and we had this strapline: Time to Believe. After that game it was: Time to Forget.” The phrase ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’ – which translates to Remember Tryweryn – has become a prominent political slogan for Welsh nationalism, and is graffitied on a stone wall near Llanrhystud, Ceredigion. It originates from the decision by Liverpool city council to flood the Tryweryn Valley, including the community of Capel Celyn, to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir which supplies water to Liverpool.